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Cross Purposes

Text of Poem

The farmer sun
forked the clouds over the horizon
blunted the edge of the wind
and stroked the fields of grain
until they ached for harvest.
But I wanted rain.
Though signs of need have never made
the sky weep for my sake,
I wore my rubber boots to tempt
the clouds and worked inside
at rainy day chores.

First Line
The farmer sun
Original Pub Location
Original Publication Date
1961
Original Citation
Discourse: A Review of Liberal Arts 5 (Winter 1961) 93.
Complete Poems
107
Hearst Collections
Word Count
59
Poetic Form
open
Bibliographic Notes

Publishing Error: pages 19-20 and 41-42 and incorrectly printed twice, back to back, between pages 30-31

Themes
Twitter Quote
But I wanted rain.